How Spartan Trifecta World Championship 2023 Went Down

It is here again. What is for many people the crown jewel in the Spartan crown:

Spartan Race Trifecta World Championship!

After another amazing addition to this world championship event, it’s time for me to sit and reflect on what happened, compare the event to last year and give those who have never been an insight into what the whole experience is like. Oh, and if you’ve followed my story up to know and may be aware, how I feel about the end result. More on that later though.

Going into this year, what exactly was I thinking?

Well, having experienced last year’s edition and loving the whole thing except for my overall performance, I was excited to return to the home of the Spartans to take on the world at who could be the best 25-29. After my performance during the 2022 really disappointing me, even if it was a top 10 finish, I was in a lot better shape mentally and physically and ready to show what I can really do.

To give you an honest insight into how I was thinking going into this year’s championship, after finishing runner up in the UK Regional Series, I had set myself three level of goals:

I would be content with a top 5 finish and having achieved at least one single race podium
I would be very happy with an overall podium finish
And if I got the top step? A man can dream. I would be over the moon.

What Is The Trifecta World Championship

For the uninitiated or who are very new to the world of Spartan Race and have somehow come across this article, let me tell you what the Trifecta World Championship is and what it is all about. I’m going to lay the basis of what this championship entails but if you’re a complete new person the sport, you may want to check out this article first to give the insight of how it gets from grass roots to the international stage.

Hosted in Sparta, Greece, the historic home to the famous Spartans, this is one of two world championship races that Spartan Race host each year. One version is a simple winner takes all race across one nominated distance, as seen in 2022 in Abu Dhabi, which you can read all about here. Then you have this version which ups the ante and the physical test to an athlete, testing them across all three core Spartan distances of a Sprint, Super and Beast across three days. Not only is it a test of mastering all three distances to get the best accumulated time, it is a test of being able to master your recovery and your body to get you ready for the next day of racing.

The winner in the end is decided by whoever has the fastest accumulated time from all three race distances, crowning the champion on the Sunday once the dust has settled.

There are three levels for which you can compete in:

Elite (what will become Pro next year) – Bringing the opportunity for prize money and awards from the individual races and overall win.
Age Group – Breaking down the field into 5 year chunks, awarding the podiums for each individual race and on overall winner.
Open – The glory of competing in Spartan, against yourself and seeing how you do against others in your gender and age group, though unfortunately no prizes like the other two levels.

Laying the ground rules, let’s get into how the 2023 iteration of the championship materialised.

Championship Weekend

To give you a break down of the whole weekend’s events, I’ll separate things day by day, giving you my impression of each section and inserting my own experiences into each section. The events of the weekend run as follows:

Thursday – Athlete registration to get race packs, experience the opening ceremony of the championship, for the athletes to be briefed on the conduct and the races, and of course, that parade of nations.
Friday – Race one with the Sprint followed by the first evening of awards ceremony, as well as an athlete’s brief
Saturday – Race two with the Super, followed by another evening of awards ceremony along with an athlete’s brief
Sunday – A big day with race three, the Beast, collection of your lifetime trifecta awards, and the big awards ceremony with both the day’s race and the overall results.

Thursday

This may have been the first official day of the championship events but for me, it was a case of trying to recover as quickly as possible and clear out what it was that was holding me back. I was feeling around 60%, hadn’t slept particularly well again but was making sure to keep myself fuelled with good nutrition and really embracing the herbal remedy for my healing.

To help me try and improve my immune system and clear out the issues that I was having with ill health, I having plenty of electrolytes to ensure high levels of hydration along with the use of echinacea, which is a herbal remedy that you add to water. For me, thus tactic worked a treat!

I used the opportunity to get outside, get some fresh air and sun, prompting the body’s healing processes, and to check out the sections of the course that were laid out in Sparta. This year, the approach had been taken to finish on the main road that runs through the middle of the city rather than the stadium. From this acquaint, I could see what’s in the final stretch, mentally prepare myself for it and understand what penalty loops are there should anything go wrong.

Thankfully, there will be no repeats of 60 burpees for failing the final two obstacles whilst my revivals who had finished watched on. That hurt, physically and emotionally.

I could feel that I needed to really sweat things out so in the afternoon, did a 5k run to do my final prep run for the championship and keep that infamous run streak going.

(Over two years and counting!)

Opening Ceremony

Before I knew it, the evening was upon us. First step was to get my registration pack before joining the other competitors gathered in the central square of Sparta with anticipation, each nation wearing their colours and flags with pride, it was a perfect time to see those familiar faces all from all across the world and catch up whilst waiting for it to start. The opening ceremony this year took on a video recap of the previous years of competition, plenty of highlights from races of yesteryears and a video from Joe De Sena. This was followed up by a warm and welcoming address from the mayor of Sparta before moving into the next activities of the evening.

Athlete's Brief

This was the first of the three athlete’s brief and set the tone of what to expect from the courses and the officiating during the weekend. In my eyes, it’s not just a chance to get a preview of the course that you’re going to be racing the next day, it allows for an opportunity for certain rules to be clarified if there are different interpretation in different regions. This where I start the process of visualising my completion of the course so that my mind and body is primed for the challenge.

Parade of Nations

This is still one of the coolest experiences of the whole evening and one that I always look back on with fondness. To be able to come together with all the fellow UK athletes and parade through the heart of Sparta to the cheers and applause from both locals and supporters from across the world is amazing. I get goosebumps when I think back to it or watch back any of the footage from that moment. This finishes with a collective photo in front of one the biggest landmarks (literally and metaphorically): the statue of Leonidas.

What a moment and one that I would tell any Spartan athlete to go to Sparta just to be able to experience it!

Friday

Pre Race

Here we go. It was show time and the time to commence a crazy 48 hours between the start of race one and the completion of race three

Well, hopefully with all things being well!

For this first race, I was feeling around 70-80% in myself. I’d done all I can to maximise recovery, sleep and support the body detoxing to get me in the best shape possible for the start line. My thought process for this first day was to test how I felt, set a good basis for the weekend but not put everything into it, as in the grand scheme of things, it’s only accounting for about 17% of the total racing that’s going to happen.

As a man of pre race rituals, I made sure to have a good breakfast 3 hours prior, get ready with plenty of time to go and then head down to the stadium to go through my standard warm up routine, with my current warm up playlist to get me going. Of course, this is accompanied by getting on plenty of electrolyte infused hydration and without fail, some London Nootropics Mojo.

(At risk of giving away my secret, if you want to try it for yourself, you can click here and get 15% off with code “quilty”.)

Finals preps were done, bag was dropped off, the mind was focused giving all that was going on and it was showtime. Time to toe the start line, get into my zone, not worry about anyone else, as I didn’t know who to worry about, and just see what happens.

Let the championship begin.

The Race

The moment the race started, all thoughts about my illness disappeared, the adrenaline hit me and I decided to attack. Get out of the pack at the beginning, get the space to get into my flow and have a clean race.

It was a fast start to the race and I charged along the old Spartan road, I could hear the pack behind me chasing and as the race evolved, expected for them to at some point engulf me as the Sprint wasn’t my strength. Rather than looking backwards though, I wanted to focus only on what’s in front of me.

With a layout very similar to last year for the beginning, the flow came quickly and the visualisation that I’d done the night before was paying off as I efficiently moved through the obstacles. Making sure that the pace was sustainable and I wasn’t going to blow up, I kept things away from the redline, playing things smart.

The course itself was another Thomas masterpiece, as were all the courses this weekend, with variation in the obstacles, slight adaptations to bring a new challenge and testing you with every twist and turn. It wasn’t unnecessarily hard but it’s still a challenge for any competitor.

As the race developed, I was feeling good and surprisingly, hadn’t been caught by the chasing pack, though could feel them breathing down my neck. I was trying to monitor the gap through obstacles that had an out and back like the carries to judge if they were closing.

With only the final stretch to go in Sparta, I approached my nemesis of the spear throw knowing that if I landed it, I’d be in for a good chance of getting a single race podium. I got in, sorted out the rope, set myself and then as I was about to throw, out of the corner of my eye, the closing pack arrived and I snatched at it, seeing it leave me hand and…

MISS!

The pressure got to me and I was off on a penalty loop with a chain for company for my mistake.

Though I was conscious of wanting to get some back after my penalty loop, I made sure that everything was in a controlled way and wasn’t rushed, remembering that for the sake of a few seconds, I could lose out on another minute or two. What didn’t help is having someone just in front of me to race to the finish line. Though that was the case, I just made sure that the race was finished clean and didn’t put in the sprint finish on the Friday when I could save that energy for potentially needing it on the Sunday.

The overall result was finishing 5th place, 1 minute and 29 seconds behind the leader. Though it can seem like a big gap, I had to reflect and remember that anything could happen over the next two days. There’s still plenty to play for and I was on target for my top 5 goal.

Awards Ceremony

When it came to the awards ceremony, though I wasn’t due to get anything for today, I still attended for a few reasons. Firstly, to see how the Elite race went on so I could follow the drama retrospectively across the weekend, whilst being inspired by the targets that I want to strive for. Secondly, to support the fellow UK athletes that had managed to get themselves a podium in the first race of the weekend. Thirdly, to see what the awards ceremony was all about this year and compare to last year.

Then, last but by no means least, as it was most important one for me, I was there to eye up the competition that I had and who to look out for over the coming two races. After a surprising strong performance, spending so long out front without anyone around me, being overtaken whilst in a penalty loop and not knowing who’s 18-24 and who’s my age group, I wanted to know who my competition was. I wanted to focus the mind, visualise and manifest that podium for myself, and know who I needed to stick with so any time lost was minimal.

Then it was off to the hotel to do some more recovery and ensure that I got the best sleep that I could to clear out the last of whatever was holding me back.

As to my thoughts on the ceremony this year? Everything seemed to go a lot smoother and I put this down to the fact that we are only dealing with penalty loops. Last year, there were burpees and penalty loops, meaning that a lot of time went into adjudicating whether everything was in the rules and confirming results, often making everything late. I distinctly remember having to often wait for half an hour or more for the start, meaning the finishing time could be as late as 2100. So a tweak in the racing and the format in the end has brought a benefit to areas in the aftermath.

Saturday

Pre Race

With a slightly different schedule to last year, the Age Group racers were heading off straight after the Elite racers, meaning a 0600 breakfast to allow for adequate digestion and hopefully nature to call to avoid any on course mishaps. I made sure to have everything laid out the night before so that it was a smooth operation in the morning to get ready and start getting in the zone, meaning no energy was wasted on small things.

Another ritualised morning of the same breakfast as the day before, the same get ready procedure, the same walk down to the stadium with the same adaptogenic coffee blend to then get into the same warm up to the same playlist. I’ve spoken about it before and find that rituals are key for me bringing that focus, wasting no energy and it’s a formula that has worked for me to bring success so mentally, I feel comfortable.

Toeing the start line today was a little different for this race, giving some glances around to see where those key competitors are so if needs be, I can track them. I had decided that morning that I was going to go with the same tactic, not over think things and go with what was natural for me. It had worked for me the day before and it suited my approach to racing.

The Race

Feeling better, I set off quickly again, this time looking like I was going to be joined by one other who had shot out even quicker than me at the start. However, a few hundred metres and couple of turns, and I was back out on my own at the front, settling myself into my own personal groove and finding my flow once again.

A few obstacles in and I had company this time, which I welcomed as it could allow me to potentially conserve energy, let them set the pace and take my mind off thinking about tactics and pacing. I wasn’t going to give this away and made sure not to compromise my race to allow for that if I felt I had more in me.

Keeping the pace I had, we started the ascent up to the church and I had the benefit of reeling in some of the female and male Elite competitors, setting all my focus on what’s in front of me and not being tempted to look back. By the time I go to the church, I found out that I was on my own again by around 30 seconds as I moved through a chain carry that meandered through the trees.

From here it was all downhill…

No, literally, it was all downhill back into Sparta, allowing me to stretch my legs and keep increase the pace for little effort. All I had in my mind was that if I took it easy, those behind me would be doing the same and that time that I had pulled out would quickly disappear. Staying on top of the mental game can be tough at times, knowing every second counts. You can’t let the concentration go as everything could be decided on those few seconds.

There were a couple of obstacles that I was fearful of from previous encounters such as the slackline but I made sure to slow things down, take my time and visualise success with them as I was leading up to them. Charging down the hill, I came to a clearing and there they were, laid out and looking all innocent next to another penalty loop carry.

I tested the tension, took a few steps to about halfway…

COMPLETED!

At the halfway point, I took a leap of faith and landed past the mark, much to my elation. The boost of confidence and mood gave me the energy to pick up the pace and keep moving forward.

Tackling Beater and Ape Hanger, and a couple of the carries, I noticed one or two closing in again, signalled by them entering the bucket carry as I left it. Without wanting to repeat the mistakes of the day before, I kept visualising me successfully completing the spear over and over again as I ticked off the remaining obstacles one by one.

The next time I could give a glance back was at the barbed wire crawl, seeing that I was on my own again, easing the pressure that I was feeling.

Into the spear I went. Rope set. Stance set. Focus. Deep breath. Practice motion. Then throw!

HIT!

My nemesis defeated this time. I knew the rest of the course was achievable and this time, I had no one around me so could finish the race in a controlled manner.

After I rang the bell of the multi rig, I ran up and crossed the line, feeling the buzz of winning a race in Sparta and knowing that the goals that I had been setting myself were being achieved. I was going to get the opportunity to stand in front of all those people and have a 1st place medal put around my neck.

Get in!

Waiting to see who crossed the line after me, it was the same faces at the day before. Congratulating them on their finish and for another strong race, looking out for those who had been in the frame for me at times, we had a small debrief of how the racing went before going into the recovery phase again.

Once all that was done, I was able to check the final results and saw that I finished 1st with a 1 minute 32 second gap to second place. This put me in overall first place by a whole 2.4 seconds going into the final race of the championship. Yes, it was exciting and I had my thoughts running away with all types of scenarios, I was doing my best to stay grounded and remember that we weren’t even half way. Though 20km may have been raced so far, there was still another 27-28km to go and in the Beast, anything can happen.

Awards Ceremony

Even though it was only for a single race and not an overall result, the feeling of getting that top spot of the podium in front of all those people was amazing! To have your name called up and being able to stand there is addictive. To stand up there with the UK flag and receive that gold medal was such an experience and makes you realise what you get from the hard work paying off. Even more so with the challenges faced in the build up.

There was work to do and one more race to get through. I made sure to enjoy the moment but once I was off the podium, time to ground myself again, get back to the hotel and go through the recovery process. I watched the preview of the course several times, visualised how I was going to do each step as I went along and then made sure to get as much sleep as I could, using some meditation and breath work to calm me down.

Sunday

Pre Race

Clearly, the universe was telling me that if I wanted to achieve this win, it was going to test me as much as it could and as the day evolved, more and more things would test me. You’ll see what I mean as we go on.

The first test sent to me was waking up at 0430 wide awake, adrenaline pumping and the stomach doing small flips, making falling back to sleep difficult. After a few small 5-10 minutes of sleep here and there, I thought “Well, if I’m not going to get back to sleep, I might as well use the time wisely’. So I used this time before breakfast to do some visualisations of a few things to make sure I was ready.

I watched the course video a few more times, pausing at each obstacle and visualised how I was going to do, from start to finish of the whole course. Then I went through scenario in my head of being in the finishing section of the course, being in the lead, making sure to feel the feelings that would come up and practicing calming myself down, even if it was only in my bed. I did this for both if I was out front alone and if I was near another competitor and obstacle success decided the fate of the championship.

If anything was going to undo my race, it was going to be my mental game so I needed to make sure I had mastered it.

0530 and early breakfast finally came around. I tried to keep to the ritual that I had set the days before however this time, the appetite wasn’t really there and ended up being the case that I was having to force feed myself Greek yoghurt, honey and oats as my pre race fuel. Falling a bowl short of the number I had set myself for adequate calories, I made sure that I had enough gels and pieces of fruit to consume during my warm up and the race to make up for it.

You guessed it: everything was the same again in the build up. The only thing that was different was the number of visits to lavatory from nerves and the stomach still churning as I toed the start line. There was a genuine fear this time that at some point during the 27-28km I’d need to stop but if it came, so be it.

I wished my fellow competitors luck for this final race and hoped that the best man win. With my 2.4s lead, all I could think of was that I needed to keep certain people in sight but I was still going to tackle the race my way.

The usual limber up. The ritual prayer to the God/the universe/insert other omnipresent and omnipotent being.

It was time to put it all on the line. I truly believe in my ability when the distances get longer and feel this race is me in my element. Time to prove it.

The final showdown.

The Race

Starting in the usual fashion, I had the same tactic for approaching this race. Get out front, settle into my flow and see what happens. Once again, starting on my own, I was joined by one other to reinforce the charge into the course though this soon changed as I managed to drop them as we climbed out of Sparta and into the hill.

I was led to be a false sense of security as the flow came back, the stomach churning disappeared and all the nervous energy became focused and controlled. Little did I know that 3km, I was going to come across my first extra ‘obstacle’ of the race.

Much to my horror, hopping over the Inverted Wall, somehow my timing chip snagged and came off my wrist. Thankfully, I managed to catch it before I slid down the other side but that point, had a small panic of what I was going to do for the rest of the race. I didn’t trust my sock nor did I trust my pockets in my shorts so that left one solution, my hand.

You may be wandering what I did with it when I came to obstacles that needed to two hands? That timing chip went straight between my teeth (see the picture below) and I clenched down hard on that with all my might. That thing wasn’t going anywhere!

Thankfully, this method seemed to work quite well and once that initial panic was over, which included asking anyone for a spare wristband, I was back into the flow and pushed that to the back of my mind. Yes, it was going to be a small mental drain concentrating on what I was going to do with it but it was manageable. Onwards!

This wasn’t going to be the last of my tests that came from extra ‘obstacles’ along the way. The next thing that tried to derail me was a pesky fence on one of the ridges at around the 10km mark.

The combination of overtaking someone, running full speed along the top of the ridge and taking on a gel resulted in me not seeing a fence that I was along the ground. As you can guess where this is going, my foot met the fence and I went sprawling. Somehow chip still in my hand, I picked myself up and continued running, making a quick assessment of what was hurting.

The knee was sore and bleeding but no functional damage so running isn’t hindered, good start. Scratches on my chest with a trickle of blood so not race ending. My hand though… my left thumb was throbbing, stiffening slightly already and making a fist was significantly painful. This is what was worrying me the most as now I may actually be down to one hand with 17-18km left to race. This really wasn’t good and now I was worried.

You can see in the picture below the read line at the base of my shorts as well as the hole, showing one of the cuts I’d managed to acquire in my fall.

My mindset changed and I realised that if this was going to let me down, I needed to put some pace down and empty the running tank to ensure that I had somewhat of a buffer for any penalty loops. All I could was keep moving my hand so that it didn’t seize up and keep clenching my first to get used to the pain that was emanating from any thumb movement.

As the course developed and I tackled obstacles, I was learning what was and wasn’t aggravating it. Applying pressure to the area hurt so pushing off the top of walls was hindered. Any carries had to be predominantly right handed wrist flexion was painful. Hanging wasn’t too bad and as long as I gripped without my thumb, though it challenged my grip strength, it wasn’t too painful.

This meant that Armer was only uncomfortable but not painful, Twister was achievable but Tyrolean Traverse tested me and nearly was a failure. The one in Sparta is particularly long and testing, fatiguing your grip. With me automatically favouring my right arm, this was tiring quickly and my left hand was starting to shout with pain signals. A couple of saves, biting down hard on the timing chip to take my mind off it, I just about managed to scramble to hit the bell with huge sigh of relief.

With two spear throws on this Beast, this was the scene of my first penalty loop with some chains to keep me company again as I missed, hitting framework.

A real tester for my hand was the Stone Carry. By now, lifting with my left hand wasn’t possible without a scream of agony and trying to manoeuvre a heavy, sharp marble stone one handed on to my shoulder was a real test. By now, the swelling was setting in, my hand was throbbing and completion of any grip based obstacles was starting to become a real worry knowing the sequences from here.

Much to my surprise though, Beater and Ape Hanger went painfully but smoothly, with a few added shouts of pain and motivation. Most other obstacles I was able to adapt the technique to take pressure off my left hand and get through it, though not in the quickest fashion. However, the Atlas Stone did take me several attempts to muster up the energy and strength to force it up on to my shoulder with basically one arm.

By now, I was like the guy from Scary Movie! “Take my strong hand!”

With all this going on and much to think about, I closed in the on finishing section of the course and with the constant fear of someone coming out of nowhere and needing to potentially have a buffer for any penalties, I kept the pace good and didn’t slow down. Obstacles were ticked off, a spear throw was hit and it was at this point that I had to remind myself to stay calm, putting into practice my visualisation.

I was only several hundred metres away from something I had dreamt of all year, even if not fully believing it was possible but I had a few more things to complete before that happened. Now wasn’t the time to get ahead of myself. As I came into the multi-rig, I started it with the ambition of finishing it but with a loss of momentum and hand screaming, a quick glance round to see I was on my own gave me the information I needed to decided to drag a chain through the penalty loop and just get this over and done with.

I dropped the chain, glanced around and saw that still, there were no others in sight and then it hit me. I was about to cross the line and become champion. The boost of adrenaline shot through me and I picked up the pace to the finish line, made sure to nail that trademark finishing pose and then I crossed the line. Falling to my knees, a rush of emotion came over me and with that, the tears came as a finisher’s medal was placed around my neck.

I wouldn’t be able to tell you what emotions were in those tears and much of what happened after finishing was a blur. There was primal scream of celebration, more tears, congratulations from Spartan staff, an impromptu interview for Spartan UK & Ireland; so much going. I waited around to see how the battle for second and third place finished up, congratulating them all on a great race and weekend and basked in the glory and relief that it was all over.

The end result was that I’d won the race outright and managed to turn my 2.4s lead into a 5 minute 1 second win.

I’ll admit, there was a paranoia that something had gone wrong, that a penalty would take it away from me for some reason even though I know it was clear and all penalties were done. I guess I just couldn’t believe what had happened especially in the face of the challenges faced along the way.

(For those you wondering what I’d actually done to my thumb, it was a suspected muscle tear and straining the supporting ligaments and tendons. As I write and publish this now, I’m still recovering from it but I am on the mend.)

Awards Ceremony

This awards ceremony was going to be special with twice stepping up on that podium. The first time was for the individual race win, which still felt good to have but the one that really hit the spot, as you can see from the Cheshire cat grin on my face the whole time was the overall trophy. To be given that golden delta, the wreath for my head and the flowers was a special moment that I won’t ever forget.

It was official at that point (not needing to check the results every 5 minutes just in case something came up):

I was Spartan Race Age Group 25-29 Trifecta World Champion.

Afterparty

This year I decided to actually celebrate at the afterparty and it was as good as it looked last year. With a mix of people from all over the world, it was great time to share a drink or two with those you’d been racing with and against, meet some of the stars of the sport like Elite winner Gregory and most importantly, throw some shapes. How I had the energy still, I don’t know but it sure was fun.

Lessons Learned

Even in the light of the success that I’ve had at this championship, which still blows my mind when I reflect back upon on it, there are always lessons to be learned. There are always improvements to be found to save time and improve performance, especially as I am looking to step up a level next year. I may have won the Age Group championship but my time delta to the winning Elite was huge. There’s a long way to go yet.

Not only that, as always, the purpose of this section is to both reinforce and confirm any lessons learned in the past, or pass on these lessons for others to learn from too.

Never Give Up

This was more a mantra at times. I faced plenty of challenges along the way and I could have easily allowed them to derail me or be an excuse for underperforming again. There was the feeling unwell, the poor sleep, the near loss of the timing chip and the hand, some threatening to halt things dead. However, I made sure to not give up and find solutions to the problems so that I could keep moving forward.

You could say that it paid off for me in the end, right?

Stay Humble & Grounded

With the success of the Saturday, I could have easily allowed the emotions to get the better of me, especially with the excitement going on around me from others. With some already saying that I was going to win it even though we weren’t even halfway, I could have let this take me away and change my perspective and approach. Instead, I made sure to calm things down and stay grounded, reminding myself that anything can happen on a Beast and a lot of the people I was racing against, I’d never seen take on the Beast before.

I have a set way of thinking when approaching a race that works for me. I dream big, I believe in myself and I’m aware of what I’m capable of but I don’t like to get ahead of myself for fear of it biting me in the backside or getting complacent. I find that staying humble and grounded is essential. I know others have a different way of going about this and that may work for you but for me, this is my way and it’s worked up to now.

Visualisation

I mean, what else am I meant to do when I can’t sleep at 0430 in the morning? I’ve always been someone who’s practiced visualisation and this weekend was one where I deployed it the most and reaped the benefits from it. Using this in your practice can prime your neurons and muscles to act in a certain way and can be a way of training a movement without fully doing the movement.

The other benefit of this is practice controlling your emotions. We’ve all imagined a situation and it has brought up the feelings and emotions we’d expect from the moment. Knowing that nerves and adrenaline can get the better of me and I’ve suffered the consequences of it in throwing a race away, I wanted to make sure I was better at controlling my emotions this time so that it didn’t trip me up.

What's Next For Me

There’s no rest for the wicked here. OK, I gave myself a week to enjoy Athens and settle back into life in the UK after my first trip away of 2023 but then it’s back to the grind. First port of call is to get my hand looked at after my injury, with it being a lot larger than it should be and certainly not the right colour. Then it’s into a modified training block, to permit for the hand, to get myself ready for the Spartan World Championship in Abu Dhabi to see what I can achieve this year, looking to better the 7th place that I ended up with last year.

Then finally, I will have an off season to allow me to rest and calibrate for 2024, working out the direction I want to go in after this year’s success. Don’t worry, I’ll be sticking with the Spartan franchise, looking to get that ‘Pro Card’ and see where I can shape up against the next level. But on top of that, there are several other franchises that I’m interested in, bringing a new challenge.

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